A look at the political year ahead in Wisconsin

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) – As we move further into the political year ahead, eyes will turn to Wisconsin, a notorious swing state. The race for president isn’t the only one to be watching for this year, there are local and state elections to watch as well.

“Local elections, the county boards, town boards, village boards and city council control all the property tax revenue and make all the decisions with respect to the same governance of the local areas. Those are very important,” John Frank, a WEAU political analyst.

While many people connect the ongoing political year to the presidential election, state races are also something to keep an eye on, like Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District.

“We always talk about living in a purple state. Well, not all of the congressional districts are purple. Some are definitely red. Some are definitely, but the purplest of the purple is in west central Wisconsin,” Frank said.

Democrats are already looking ahead, aiming to reclaim that seat.

“We have really three priorities for the entire year and it comes to BBB,” William Garcia, the chair of Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District Democrats said. “It’s Biden, Baldwin and then beat Derrick Van Orden.”

We asked Congressman Van Orden if he is running for re-election. Here’s some of what he said: “I didn’t run for Congress to run for Congress. I ran for Congress to serve the people in the 3rd Congressional District,” Van Orden said. “All that stuff, you know, it’s going to work itself out. Right now, I’m laser-focused on making sure we can do everything we can to help people.”

Those local races might not look the same though.

“You not only have this vortex that’s circling around with so many elections in one year but now you’ve layered on top of it by the Wisconsin Supreme Court with redistricting,” Frank said. “People are going to have to watch to see, you know, who is going to be their representative or who’s going to be their state senator because of redistricting.”

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled new legislative maps need to be drawn by January 12. The presidential primary and spring election are on April 2.

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